The challenges of urban ageing : making cities age-friendly in Europe

Urban ageing is an emerging domain that deals with the population of older people living in cities. The ageing of society is a positive yet challenging phenomenon, as population ageing and urbanisation are the culmination of successful human development. One could argue whether the city environment is an ideal place for people to grow old and live at an old age compared to rural areas. This viewpoint article explores and describes the challenges that are encountered when making cities age-friendly in Europe. Such challenges include the creation of inclusive neighbourhoods and the implementation of technology for ageing-in-place. Examples from projects in two age-friendly cities in The Netherlands (The Hague) and Poland (Cracow) are shown to illustrate the potential of making cities more tuned to the needs of older people and identify important challenges for the next couple of years. Overall, the global ageing of urban populations calls for more age-friendly approaches to be implemented in our cities. It is a challenge to prepare for these developments in such a way that both current and future generations of older people can benefit from age-friendly strategies

Smart Textiles in Building and Living Applications: WG4 CONTEXT Insight on Elderly and Healthcare Environments

Over the past 30 years, the development of new technologies and especially of smart textiles has unavoidably led to new applications of traditional textiles in the built environment. Depending on special constructional needs (i.e., acoustic insulation, thermal insulation, shading system, etc.) or health monitoring and supporting needs (i.e., for patients with chronical disease, etc.), an increasing number of possible applications has been proposed to improve human well-being. This is especially the case for healthcare environments (like elderly or nursing homes, etc.), but also educational environments (like schools, etc.) where young or old customers can benefit from technological innovation in several ways. As an ongoing activity of WG4 members for the CA17107 “CONTEXT” European research network, this study presents a review on selected applications for building and living solutions, with special attention to healthcare environments, giving evidence of major outcomes and potentials for smart textiles-based products

An international survey on residential lighting: Analysis of winter-term results

By conducting an international survey on residential lighting, a great variety of data showing the differences and similarities in lighting conditions among Poland, Turkey, Sweden and the U.K. were collected which provided an overall perspective for raising the standards of luminous environments. A total of 500 participants (125 respondents from each country- 47.6% females, 51.2% males, and 1.2% who did not wish to specify gender) provided detailed self-assessments of the lighting conditions in their living areas. The study identified interrelated factors associated with residential lighting using descriptive statistics, correlation coefficient functions and thematic analysis. As the survey results showed, the satisfaction with daylighting quality depends on daylighting sufficiency, daylighting uniformity, and number of sunlight hours (i.e., sunlight exposure), view-out and ratio of windows in the living area. Moreover satisfaction with artificial lighting quality depends on artificial lighting sufficiency, artificial lighting uniformity, artificial lighting brightness, and artificial lighting color rendering index. Overall, the findings of the study showed the potential factors that can be used to effectively change the day- and artificial lighting in residential areas, leading to a sustainable and better lighting environment

First, do no harm - Missing data treatment to support lake ecological condition assessment

Indicators of ecological condition status of water bodies associated with field measurements are often subject to data gaps. This obstacle can often lead to abandonment of assessment. Furthermore, it can lead to the use of methods, based merely on their availability. In response to these challenges, a systematic approach for expert-analyst interaction for missing data treatment is proposed. A combination of algorithms with hierarchical clustering of results is used. A particular emphasis is put on the preparation and interpretation of input data and the role of an expert in the workflow. The proposed approach enhances the decision-making process by improving communication and transparency throughout interactions between experts, analysts and decision makers. Future research should focus on assessing the scale of the ecological data drift phenomenon, which, based on the observed climate change, anthropological pressure and biodiversity loss, may impact the broad concept of indicator construction for lake water ecological assessmen

A review of nature-based solutions for urban water management in European circular cities: a critical assessment based on case studies and literature

Abstract Nature-based solutions (NBS) can protect, manage and restore natural or modified ecosystems. They are a multidisciplinary, integrated approach to address societal challenges and some natural hazards effectively and adaptively, simultaneously providing human well-being and biodiversity benefits. NBS applications can be easily noticed in circular cities, establishing an urban system that is regenerative and accessible. This paper aims to offer a review on NBS for urban water management from the literature and some relevant projects running within the COST Action 'Implementing nature-based solutions for creating a resourceful circular city'. The method used in the study is based on a detailed tracking of specific keywords in the literature using Google Scholar, ResearchGate, Academia.edu, ScienceDirect and Scopus. Based on this review, three main applications were identified: (i) flood and drought protection; (ii) the water-food-energy nexus; and (iii) water purification. The paper shows that NBS provide additional benefits, such as improving water quality, increasing biodiversity, obtaining social co-benefits, improving urban microclimate, and the reduction of energy consumption by improving indoor climate. The paper concludes that a systemic change to NBS should be given a higher priority and be preferred over conventional water infrastructure

Management of Urban Waters with Nature-Based Solutions in Circular Cities—Exemplified through Seven Urban Circularity Challenges

Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) have been proven to effectively mitigate and solve resource depletion and climate-related challenges in urban areas. The COST (Cooperation in Science and Technology) Action CA17133 entitled “Implementing nature-based solutions (NBS) for building a resourceful circular city” has established seven urban circularity challenges (UCC) that can be addressed effectively with NBS. This paper presents the outcomes of five elucidation workshops with more than 20 European experts from different backgrounds. These international workshops were used to examine the effectiveness of NBS to address UCC and foster NBS implementation towards circular urban water management. A major outcome was the identification of the two most relevant challenges for water resources in urban areas: ‘Restoring and maintaining the water cycle’ (UCC1) and ‘Water and waste treatment, recovery, and reuse’ (UCC2). s Moreover, significant synergies with ‘Nutrient recovery and reuse’, ‘Material recovery and reuse’, ‘Food and biomass production’, ‘Energy efficiency and recovery’, and ‘Building system recovery’ were identified. Additionally, the paper presents real-life case studies to demonstrate how different NBS and supporting units can contribute to the UCC. Finally, a case-based semi-quantitative assessment of the presented NBS was performed. Most notably, this paper identifies the most typically employed NBS that enable processes for UCC1 and UCC2. While current consensus is well established by experts in individual NBS, we presently highlight the potential to address UCC by combining different NBS and synergize enabling processes. This study presents a new paradigm and aims to enhance awareness on the ability of NBS to solve multiple urban circularity issues.publishedVersio

Non-Standard Errors

In statistics, samples are drawn from a population in a data-generating process (DGP). Standard errors measure the uncertainty in estimates of population parameters. In science, evidence is generated to test hypotheses in an evidence-generating process (EGP). We claim that EGP variation across researchers adds uncertainty: Non-standard errors (NSEs). We study NSEs by letting 164 teams test the same hypotheses on the same data. NSEs turn out to be sizable, but smaller for better reproducible or higher rated research. Adding peer-review stages reduces NSEs. We further find that this type of uncertainty is underestimated by participants

SOLIS—A Novel Decision Support Tool for the Assessment of Solar Radiation in ArcGIS

The global Sustainable Development Goals influence the implementation of energy development strategies worldwide. However, in order to support local stakeholders in sustainable energy development strategies and climate change adaptation plans and the implementation of policies, there is a need to equip local decision makers with tools enabling the assessment of sustainable energy investments. In order to do so, the aim of this study is to create a novel tool for the assessment of solar radiation (SOLIS) in ArcGIS. The SOLIS tool builds on the existing ArcGIS algorithm by including input data conversion and post-processing of the results. This should expand the group of potential users of solar radiation analyses. The self-filtering tool excludes surfaces that are not suitable for solar energy investments due to geometrical reasons. The reduction of the size of the output data is positive for technical reasons (speed of the calculation and occupied storage place) and for cognitive reasons (reduction of the number of objects necessary to analyse by the user). The SOLIS tool limits the requirement for users to insert three-dimensional (3D) models of roofs (with any geometry) and select solar radiation calculation periods. The highlight of this research is to develop the decision support tool for the assessment of solar radiation, which would reduce the requirements for potential users, in order to promote indicator-based assessments among non-Geographical Information Systems (GIS) specialists

The Role of Biogas Production in Circular Economy Approach from the Perspective of Locality

The circular economy is an economic concept opposite to the current linear system. One of its main principles is to seek to minimise waste by reusing seemingly useless raw materials. Biogas plants are places where energy can be recovered from waste. In order to boost the environmental benefits of this concept, it is important to rely on local systems (including supply chains). Therefore, the aim of this study was to examine whether biogas plants in Poland operate in a circular manner from the perspective of locality. The analysis was based on questionnaire surveys concerning the nature of the facilities’ operations, divided into biogas plants located at sewage treatment plants, biogas plants based on municipal waste and agricultural biogas plants. On the basis of the data obtained, statistical and spatial analyses were carried out to verify the installed capacity of the facilities, the distance from which they obtain their substrate and the use of the biogas produced. The results of the study confirm that the functioning of biogas plants located in Poland is, in most cases, of a local character, fitting into the objectives of a circular economy. Biogas plants that are characterised by the lowest transportation needs are biogas plants located next to sewage treatment plants